Sunday, January 23, 2005

Slick Dick

Another Halliburton ProbeThe Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton Co. was involved in the payment of $180 million in possible kickbacks to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria during a period in the late 1990's when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company, Newsweek has learned.

Will the French Indict Cheney?The suspected bribe money was mostly ladled out between 1995 and 2000, when Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. The Journal du Dimanche reported on December 21 that "it is probable that some of the 'retrocommissions' found their way back to the United States" and asked, did this money go "to Halliburton's officials? To officials of the Republican Party?" These questions have so far gone unasked by America's media, which have completely ignored the explosive Le Figaro headline revealing the targeting of Cheney. It will be interesting to see if the US press looks seriously into this ticking time-bomb of a scandal before the November elections.

And this story has dropped off the radar at CNN too? Wait a minute, our memories aren't that short. What about Cheney's role in these bribes?

As I recall, we were given a glass of Monica Whitewater chardonnay every night at dinner with the 6:00 news. Does Kenneth Starr advocate pursuing this investigation with equal fervor? And why not?